Pan American Games: All you need to know
October 19, 2023
The 2023 Pan American Games and ParaPan American Games will be the first ever edition in Santiago, Chile. It's the 19th edition of an event that first began in 1951 in Argentina, although this will be just the seventh edition for Para athletes.
Chile is hosting for the Games for the first time and it's set to be the largest multi-sport event ever in the country, which also hosted the seventh World Cup back in 1962.
The event, which will run from October 20 until November 5, is often seen as a dress rehearsal for the Olympics because it is always held the year before the world's major international multi-sport event.
Santiago will host 8,000 athletes from 41 nations competing across 56 sports. The USA will be sending the largest contingent, with 631 athletes expected, 93 of whom are Olympians. Athletes from Brazil, Argentina, Canada and Mexico are expected in large numbers, but the event gives athletes from smaller nations such as the Bahamas, Grenada and Suriname the chance to go for glory, too.
With over 100 direct quotas for Paris 2024 on offer, the Pan American Games are much more than just a chance to compete for some athletes.
Debuts for three sports
This year, skateboarding, breaking, and sport climbing will make their debut at the games.
Sport climbing and skateboarding debuted at 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and will return in Paris in 2024, but their arrival at the Pan American Games gives a raft of new athletes the chance to compete at the highest level.
Breaking, also known as break dancing, will make its debut at the Olympics in Paris in 2024 after a successful outing at the Youth Olympic Games in 2018. In Santiago, all eyes will be trained on athletes being judged on their creativity, personality, technique, variety, performance and music. A total of 32 athletes will compete to qualify — 16 boys and 16 girls — in dance battles against once another. Both gold medalists will qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Elsewhere, artistic roller skating will get an outing in Santiago and synchronized trampolining will be contested for the first time ever.
Superstars
Did you know that Michael Jordan played in the competition before he had even been drafted into the NBA, playing for the US in 1983?
This time around, the US has declined to submit a 5x5 basketball team but that doesn't mean there aren't any stars on show.
Brazil's leading gymnast Rebeca Andrade is fresh off a gold medal in the vault at the World Championships in Antwerp and returns to her home continent to compete.
Andrade, the first Brazilian female gymnast to win a medal at an Olympic Games, is widely considered one of the greatest gymnasts of the modern era. The 24-year-old won gold in the vault in Tokyo and, having missed out on the 2019 Pan American Games following a third anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee tear, leads the team hoping to beat the US to gold.
She will face stiff competition though, with 22-year-old Jordan Chiles headlining the US team in the absence of Simone Biles. Chiles won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics as a member of the US team and will be looking to go for glory at her first Pan American Games.
Perhaps the biggest name of the games though, is skateboarding superstar Rayssa Leal. The 15-year-old Brazilian won silver in Tokyo aged just 13, making her the youngest ever Olympian from her country and the youngest medalist in 85 years. Her success made her an overnight sensation and Leal hasn't looked back since, winning gold in this year's X Games.
Leal suffered a wrist injury in Switzerland last month but is hoping to show her 6.3 million Instagram followers and the world why she is the best street skaterboarder on the planet in the sport's competition debut.
Safe is the word
With around a million people expected to attend the games over the course of 17 days, it is no surprise safety is a high priority.
One of the initiatives launched is a QR Code designed to keep women safe. The QR code will available to scan at both the Santiago International Airport and in the athletes' village. Doing so will bring up information on the prevention of gender violence as well as a list of relevant contact information.
Elsewhere, organizers will be distributing 100,000 condoms during the games, the majority of which will be delivered to the athlete's village and official hotels. While that is not nearly as many as were distributed during the Rio games (reportedly around 450,000, or 42 per athlete), the drive to promote safe sex among athletes and the population is clear.
Toronto did something similar when it hosted the Pan American Games back in 2015, distributing condoms in the hope of reinvigorating condom use in the city.
Indeed, Chile is well advised to do the same, given that a recent research paper by Manuel Armayones Ruiz published in the journal BMC Public Health, states, "UNAIDS believes the country presents the highest incidence of STI/HIV in Latin America."
Edited by: Kalika Mehta